Filing appliance



July 6, 1937, w CLARK 2,086,472

FILING APPLIANCE Filed Aug. 10, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 A MM will A M 37 Fly 5 fiam/a' W Clair/I Patented July 6, 1937 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE FILING APPLIANCE corporation of Ohio Application August 10, 1936, Serial No. 95,095

10 Claims.

The invention relates to filing appliances for sales bills or tickets and similar papers, in which a series of hinged leaves or holder frames are operatively mounted upon a supporting frame upon which the leaves are independently hinged or pivoted; and more particularly to an appliance of this general character in which the leaves are hingedly .mounted by vertical pivots or hinges upon horizontally hinged frames adapted to be swung into a cabinet within which the entire appliance may be enclosed when not in use.

In filing appliances of this type it has been customary in the past to independently hinge the leaves together or to independently hinge each leaf upon a fixed horizontal frame. In either case it has been necessary to bodily move the entire section of hinged leaves to place the filingappliance within a cabinet or the like for safe keeping when not in use.

20 The object of the present improvement is to.

provide a filing appliance of the general character referred to in which the leaves may be mounted in sections, each section adapted to be independently swung upon a hinge or pivot to 25 a position within a cabinet or case provided with a door or doors within which the filing appliance may be safely stored so as to prevent burglary or damage by fire or water.

A further object is to provide means whereby each section of hinged leaves may be swung outward out of the cabinet to operative position or into the cabinet for safe keeping in a single movement.

A still further object is to provide means for locking each section of hinged leaves in operative position, permitting the leaves to be separated at any point to gain access to the sales bills or slips carried thereon.

The above objects, together with others which will be apparent from the drawings and following description, or which may be hereinafter referred to, may be attained by constructing the I improved filing appliance in the manner illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of a filing appliance embodying the invention, showing two sections of filing leaves located within the cabinet f in the inoperative position with the doors of the 1 ing the same in the operative position;

. Fig. 3, an enlarged fragmentary sectional view 55 of a lower corner portion of the cabinet, showing the locking means for holding each section of hinged leaves in operative position;

Fig. 4, a horizontal plan section through a cabinet showing two sections of leaves located therein in the inoperative position; and

Fig. 5, a view similar to Fig. 4 showing one;

section of leaves in the operative position and the other section of leaves partly pulled out of the cabinet.

Similar numerals refer throughout the drawings.

The cabinet illustrated in the drawings is adapted for carrying two sections of hinged filing leaves although it should be understood that the invention is applicable for cabinets holding one or any plurality of sections of the filing leaves. Although the cabinet illustrated comprises merely sheet metal walls, simply for the purpose of illustrating a cabinet, the improved filing appliance in actual practice may be mounted within a burglarproof or fireproof cabinet of any usual and well known construction, the structure of the cabinet itself not forming any part of the invention.

The cabinet illustrated comprises the bottom and top walls ill and II respectively, side walls l2 and a back wall 13 and is provided with one or more hinged doors indicated generally at M.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated, the cabinet is shown having two sections of hinged leaves and two doors are provided upon the cabinet. Each of the doors is hingedly connected to the front edge of the corresponding side wall 52 as by the hinges l5.

For the purpose of locking the doors, one door may be provided with a locking mechanism to be hereinafter described and with an offset flange H5 at its swinging edge adapted to overlap the swinging edge of the other door when in closed position, as shown in Fig. 4. The locking mechanism includes a pair of locking bars I! pivotally connected at their inner ends as at is to a block it pivotally mounted upon the inside of the door as by the rotatable operating handle 20, the outer ends of said locking bars being slotted as at 2! to receive studs 22 carried near the upper and lower edges of the door.

When the doors are closed the locking handle may be given a quarter turn, projecting the outer or free ends of the two locking bars ll behind the angular flanges 23 formed at the top and bottom of the cabinet, while the block is is projected across the inner side of the swinging edge portion of the other door as shown in Fig. 1.

In order to lock the mechanism in this posito similar parts tion, any suitable form of lock may be provided such as the cylinder lock indicated generally at 24, having a radially movable lug 25 adapted to be turned into position against the adjacent edge of the block l9 when in locked position.

Each section of hinged leaves is carried upon a back plate 26 hingedly connected at one side edge to the top and bottom walls of the cabinet, as indicated at 21. The opposite side edge of this plate may be provided with a strengthening flange 28 and angular flanges 2d are also formed at the top and bottom edges of the plate.

The filing leaves are indicated at 38, any desired number of these leaves being hingedly connected to the back plate to form a section of independently hinged filing leaves. Each of these leaves may be of any usual and well known construction, being formed of sheet metal or the like provided with a reinforcing frame 3! around its edges and divided into vertical columns as by the ribs 32 upon opposite faces of the leaf, 9. row of spring clips 33 being mounted in each column in usual and well known manner to receive and hold the sales slips or other papers to be filed.

Pintles are provided at the upper and lower ends of the rear or hinged edge portion of each leaf for hingedly mounting the leaf upon the angular flanges 29 of the back plate. These pintles may be formed by locating a wire or rod 34 within a bead 35 formed at the hinged edge of the leaf and extending beyond the upper and lower edges of the leaf so as to be pivotally received within suitable apertures 36 in the flanges 29. Triangular spacing clips 3'5 may, if desired, be fixed upon the swinging edges of the leaves so as to uniformly space the swinging edges of the leaves apart.

For the purpose of easily swinging the section of hinged leaves outward to operative position, a bar 38 may be pivotally connected at one end as at 39 to an intermediate portion of the last leaf of the section and provided with an upturned lug fill at its other end, forming a hand grip. A link El is pivotally connected at one end to an intermediate portion of the bar 38 as indicated at 42, the other end of said link being pivotally connected to an intermediate portion of the frame or back plate as by one of the pintles 39, as indicated at 43 in the drawings.

A stop M in the form of a flange or strip may be connected to the back wall l3 at a point directly opposite to the hinge point 21 acting to limit the inward movement of the sections of hinged leaves as shown in Fig. 4.

For the purpose of holding each section of hinged leaves in operative position, a latch is formed, comprising a leaf spring 45 connected at its lower end to the lower portion of the flange 28 upon the back frame as by spot welding or the like and connected at its upper end to the upper end of a. substantially straight finger 46, a plunger 41 being also connected to the upper end of said spring and slidably located through a suitable aperture #9 in the flange 28.

The lower free end of the finger 46 is adapted to engage the stop 50 upon the adjacent side wall l2 of the cabinet, said stop having a tapered rear face 5! to permit the finger to ride past the same when the section of hinged leaves is pulled to the open position. When it is desired to swing the section of hinged leaves into the cabinet, the plunger t! is pressed outward, swinging the spring 45 and finger 35 to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 3 so that said finger clears the stop 50.

From the above it will be evident that a very simple and efiicient filing appliance is provided in which the sections of hinged leaves may be quickly and easily swung into the cabinet when not in use or swung out into operative position and latched in said position, at which time access may be had to either side of each leaf as the leaves may be swung apart upon their pivots suificiently to permit any of the sales slips or tickets carried by the spring clips 33 to be easily accessible.

I claim:

1. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a supporting frame hinged at one edge to the front portion of the cabinet and adapted to swing from a position. parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a positionat right angles thereto, a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to said supporting frame at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges and a bar pivotally connected to the leaf at the swinging end of the supporting frame and extending transversely across the leaves for swinging the frame and leaves out of the cabinet.

2. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a supporting frame hinged at one edge to the front portion of the cabinet and adapted to swing from a position parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a position at right angles thereto, a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to said supporting frame at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges, means for limiting the inward movement of said supporting frame and means for latching said supporting frame in its outward position.

3. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a supporting frame hinged at one edge to the front portion'of the cabinet and adapted to swing from a position parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a position at right angles thereto, a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to said supporting frameat their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges, and means for latching said supporting frame in its outward position.

4. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a supporting frame hinged at one edge to the front portion of the cabinet and adapted to swing from a position parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a position at right angles thereto, a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to said supporting frame at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward. edges, and means pivotally connected to said frame and to the endmost leaf for swinging the frame and leaves out of the'cabinet.

5. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a supporting frame hinged at one edge to the front portion of the cabinet and adapted to swing from a position parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a position at right angles thereto, a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to said supporting frame at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges, a bar pivotally connected to the endmost leaf, and a link pivotally connected to the bar and'frame for swinging the frame and leaves out of the cabinet. 1

6. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a back plate hinged at one edgeto the front portion of the cabinet and adapted toswing from a position parallel to the frontof the cabinet inward to a position at right angles. thereto, angular flanges at the upper and lower edges of said back plate, and a series of upright filing leaves hingedly s connected to said flanges at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges.

7. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a back plate hinged at one edge to the front portion of the cabinet and adapted to swing from a position parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a position at right angles thereto, angular flanges at the upper and lower edges of said back plate, a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to said flanges at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges, an angular flange at the swinging edge of said back plate, a latch carried by said last named angular flange, and a stop upon the cabinet adapted to cooperate with said latch to hold the back plate in operative position.

8. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a back plate hinged at one edge to the front portion of the cabinet and adapted to swing from a position parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a position at right angles thereto, angular flanges at the upper and lower edges of said back plate, a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to said flanges at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges, an angular flange at the swinging edge of said back plate, a latch carried by said last named angular flange, a stop upon the cabinet adapted to cooperate with said latch to hold the back plate in operative position, and a plunger extending through said last named angular flange for releasing said latch.

9. A filing appliance including fixed top, bottom, back and side walls forming a cabinet having an open front, doors hinged to the front edges of the side walls for closing said open front, supporting frames hinged to the front central portions of said top and bottom walls and each adapted to swing from a position parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a position at right angles thereto, and a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to each supporting frame at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges.

10. A filing appliance including a cabinet, a supporting frame hinged at one edge to the front portion of the cabinet and adapted to swing from a position parallel to the front of the cabinet inward to a position at right angles thereto, a series of upright filing leaves hingedly connected to said supporting frame at their rear edges for swinging apart at their forward edges, a bar pivotally connected to the leaf at the swinging end of the supporting frame, and extending transversely across the leaves for swinging the frame and leaves out of the cabinet and cooperating means at the swinging edges of the leaves for holding the leaves substantially parallel to each other as the frame and leaves are swung into or out of the cabinet.

HAROLD W. CLARK. 

